"The highest as the lowest form of criticism is a mode of autobiography."
-- Oscar Wilde

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

A View of One of the Lakes in Copenhagen, by Christen Købke (1838)

This
week we celebrate the birthday of Christen
Schiellerup Købke, who was born on May
26, 1810. He had a brief life, dying in
1848, but this Danish painter born in Copenhagen to Peter
Berendt Købke, a baker, and his wife Cecilie
Margrete, was one of the greatest artists of the Golden Age of Danish
Painting.

One of 11
children, Købke was a student of Copenhagen Academy and, from 1828, a
pupil of Christoffer Eckersberg
(1783-1853), who influenced his style.

Starting
in 1834, his landscapes acquired a more solemn and emotional quality, inspired
by his interest in Caspar Friedrich
(1774-1840). He left for Rome in the
summer of 1838; during his journey, he visited Dresden and Munich. In May 1839, he arrived in Naples, and he
stayed there until August 1840, copying the Pompeian frescoes in the National
Museum.

He lived
in Capri with his compatriot painter, Constantin
Hansen (1804-1880). When he returned
home, he turned his Italian life studies into large-scale painting. He worked on the interiors of the Thorvaldsen
Museum, and in 1845, he moved back to Copenhagen. He had hopes of being called into the arts academy,
but when that didn’t happen, money concerns forced him to start working as a
decorator.

Today we
look at one of my favorite Købke
pictures, A View of One of the Lakes in
Copenhagen, painted in 1838 and now at the Copenhagen National Gallery of Art.

In this
oil, two women stand on a short wooden pier in the tranquility of the summer
twilight, watching a boat move away towards the far lake shore. The delicate silhouette effect accentuates
the slightly melancholy mood of the scene and the hour, and simultaneously
suggests the artist’s sensitivity in communicating the naturalness of the
scene. The Danish painter acquired this
ability during his long apprenticeship to Eckersberg, during the time the two
men traveled together, sketching the Danish countryside from life.

Before
deciding on the definitive layout for this painting, Købke executed various sketches of this view that he
knew and loved – in fact, Købke lived right
on the lakeshore.

Though Købke is clearly a gifted draughtsman and painter,
there is something else going on in this picture that makes it so special. First and foremost, Købke had the most important gift an artist can have –
that of composition. The layout and
design of the picture frame is what makes the finished work so haunting and evocative.

Købke also has the gift of subtlety – a sense of wistful
yet intense emotion is captured by the artful placement of a few carefully
rendered figures. There are no faces in
anguish or delight, no straining muscles or fiery (or smoky) colors, but still Købke manages to create a world of emotion
without. Amazing.

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James Abbott

James Abbott is a California-based writer and arts advocate. His online column The Jade Sphinx (http://thejadesphinx.blogspot.com/) champions the Fine Arts, featuring stories on such concepts as recognizable quality, artistic heritage and tradition, and techniques of the Great Masters.